This invention relates to a device for accommodating electrically driven battery powered vehicles, especially two and three-wheel scooters, for automatically handling the vehicle renting procedures and for exchanging and recharging the batteries.
Usually, the only liquid fuel vehicles are rented, but these are not the most suitable vehicles for city use because of the well known problems of pollution and traffic that they cause, besides, these vehicles require fuelling at dedicated service stations, which hardly ever coincide with the rental company premises.
A first alternative consists of vehicles powered by rechargeable batteries at the points of departure or arrival, this mode of transportation, in order to be compatible with an intensive use, requires the automatic exchange of the batteries for recharging, at the least. The known automatic battery exchange systems are usually capable of dealing with only one user at a time, and, therefore, they are unable to cater for a large number of users without increasing the number of recharging stations; but this solution would require a greater amount of space and more facilities. A further drawback is related to the shape of the batteries, which must be adapted to the structure of the battery exchange system which, in the majority of cases, is not compatible with the batteries commonly for sale.
The state of the art currently provides the technical solutions requiring the vehicles to park in automated parking areas and separate facilities for renting the vehicles and for exchanging and recharging the batteries; as regards the automated parking areas, we would like to mention the patents UD/92/A/48 by Grion and UD/92/A/108 by Fabris. The former relates to a multilevel garage for motor vehicles with a main lift and a set of roller decks or conveyors controlled by a computerized unit for accommodating the vehicles inside a parking space and recording the position of each vehicle; the latter patent relates to a cylinder-shaped multilevel structure with a variable and rotating lift running up and down a vertical axis and enabling the access of the cars to the various levels from the ground floor.
Both the above mentioned solutions feature the drawback of requiring very large structures, with no special facilities for electrically driven vehicles, such as renting and battery exchange and recharging facilities, nor do they allow for a combined use by different types of vehicles. There are also some computerized systems for exchanging and recharging the batteries of electrically driven vehicles, such as the European patent application EP 0 476 405, by Borgel, which relates to a goods handling system in a factory, where the battery powered vehicles run in dedicated aisles and the batteries feature a hardware card storing a code for their unequivocal identification and for recording all the charge data, which is transmitted to a computerized central unit, where the data is assessed, according to certain algorithms, to determine whether the vehicles must be called in to exchange and recharge the batteries. Although this patent concerns a different field of application than the present invention, it must be pointed out that the vehicles are trucks used for handling goods and moving within dedicated aisles and that the patent provides for no automated systems for exchanging and recharging the batteries.
With reference to the specific field of application of the present invention, relating to the automated exchange and subsequent recharging of the batteries, a solution is given in the patent FI/91/A/258 by D""Ascanio; whose key feature is the possibility of exchanging the batteries exclusively from the underside of the vehicle; this entails such characteristic features as; the battery exchange station must consist of a pit located beneath the vehicle parking space; the shape of the batteries must be such as to be fitted into the removed from the vehicle with ease besides the plugging into the sockets and the handling of the batteries by means of special trucks.
This patent also provides for computerized means for monitoring and performing the operations, at both the battery recharging stations and in the batteries themselves. A first drawback of the D""Ascanio patent, however, is that the battery exchange station requires a battery storeroom for each exchange device, entailing excavation and underground construction work; a further drawback is that it provides only for the use of custom-made batteries.
The present invention principally relates to a combined system for renting electrically driven battery powered vehicles for city use and for exchanging and recharging the batteries, all in one place.
The invention also relates to a system capable of catering. for a large number of users at a single battery exchange and regarding station.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a system providing for the use of batteries commonly found for sale, compatibly with the equipment, in order to avoid having to manufacture special batteries.
Last but not least, the present invention relates to a system that is easy to use and economic to operate, without the need of any complex know-how or skilled labour. These and other characteristics are achieved in this combined device for renting electrically driven vehicles, especially scooters, and exchanging and recharging the batteries used to power the vehicles, composed of:
a box-shaped structure with a number of housings at the front of the same shape as the vehicle;
at least one device moving on a vertical deck,consisting of container supports for carrying a certain number of batteries;
devices for removing and fitting the containers from and into the vehicles and the supports;
a device for opening and closing the doors of the vehicle housing spaces ;
a device for locking and unlocking the vehicle inside its housing and, at the same time, for opening and closing the vehicle battery access doors;
a device for correctly positioning the vehicle inside the above mentioned housings ;
means of connection between the batteries and the 220 V mains, and between the vehicles and the computerized units for monitoring and handling the vehicle renting and battery exchange and recharging operations.